I am probably one of the few music critics out there who
\nactually would go on the record and admit I liked
\nSlang<\/i>, Def Leppard’s 1996 release. Granted, it was an album
\nthat took some getting used to, with its more down-to-earth beats
\nand songwriting that was as far removed from
\nHysteria<\/i> as anything you could have imagined Joe Elliott and
\ncompany doing. But once you gave it a chance, it turned out to be a
\npretty good album.<\/p>\n
I’m sincerely hoping that Def Leppard’s latest,
\nEuphoria<\/i>, is also an album that has to grow on you. Despite
\na return to the guitar and vocal style that catapaulted them into
\nsuperstardom on albums like
\nHysteria<\/i>, it often feels like the band misses the mark – but
\nnot by a whole lot.<\/p>\n
\nEuphoria<\/i> is notable because it reunites the band – vocalist
\nElliott, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick
\nSavage and drummer Rick Allen – with Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who
\ncontributes his songwriting talents to three cuts. These cuts –
\n“Promises,” “All Night” and “It’s Only Love” – happen to be some of
\nthe best material on the album, qhich raises the question: Had
\nLange been more involved with this album, what could the final
\nproduct have sounded like? Regrettably, the answer will remain a
\ndream.<\/p>\n
It’s not that the other members of Def Leppard are incapable of
\nwriting a decent song; tracks like “Goodbye” (written by Savage),
\n“Disintegrate” (written by Collen) and “Guilty” all prove that Def
\nLeppard knows what it takes to make a decent track. If they know
\nall this, then why do they have to resort to sophomore bragadoccio
\nlike on “Back In Your Face”? It’s been my experience that if you
\nhave to declare you’re back, people never noticed you left.<\/p>\n
What is disappointing about
\nEuphoria<\/i> overall is its sound. It just feels like the spark
\nof energy that you heard on
\nHysteria<\/i> (an album that was a definite return from the past)
\njust isn’t present here. Tracks like “Demolition Man” and “Paper
\nSun” are listenable, as is a good portion of the album, but there
\njust isn’t a sense of urgency to the music, making the listener
\nwonder what these guys have been up to.<\/p>\n
Of course, Def Leppard still has its diehard fans (and I’d call
\nmyself one) who would stop at nothing to lay their hands on a copy
\nof
\nEuphoria<\/i>, and that alone should bring the band some chart
\nsuccess in the beginning. But without the urgency and energy behind
\nthe music, the
\nEuphoria<\/i> wears off quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5660],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39052","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-def-leppard","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39052"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39052"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}